A Promise Never Forgotten
by WillZ
Summary: An alternate Universe story. Takes place in manga timeline before volume 9.


Disclaimer: I don't own Love Hina or it's characters. They are owned  
by TV Tokyo. The fiction you are reading is mine. Please do not steal  
it, and claim it as your own, or sell it for profit. Comments and  
Criticisms appreciated. Special Thanks to Fish, who let me bug her   
while she was sick, so I could get this fic done in one day.  
  
Now, on with:  
  
  
A Promise never Forgotten  
  
  
  
  
I never was able to keep my promise.  
  
Sure, I made it into Toudai, but what good was it to fail out my first year? Otohime was always cheerful and supportive, but, I guess, some things just weren't meant to be...  
  
  
"Keitarou!" Naru screamed, managing to send me over a part of Japan I hadn't expected to see for a long while. My house looked incredibly small from this viewpoint, which was funny, since it had always seemed to be bigger than almost everything but the Hinatasou to me.  
  
As I landed in the ocean on the other side of Japan, I kept asking myself "Why." Why did I love her so much? Why did I bother to try to win her affections? Yes, I am a pervert at times, but it is a small weakness. I prefer to sketch the women I see, and maybe occasionally I'd need to reach for a tissue, but overall, I would have traded everything, just to have her give me her softer side. Now, I would just trade everything for just one more moment with her, even if it was so she could send me into orbit again.  
  
We were happy at first. It was just the three of us, studying our courses, going on misadventures, and just enjoying the fact that, as hectic as our lives were, we were really, truly happy.  
  
The first term came and went without a hitch: The Mecha Tamago Project had been completely shut down, and we somehow convinced Motoko that boys really aren't that bad. I heard that she's marrying her first real boyfriend.  
  
Second term was unsteady, due to the fact I had overloaded, and the play we held to fund Auntie Haruka's Teahouse had caused me to forgo studying or even attend classes. It wasn't even enough that we poured our hearts into the play; they were forced to shut it down for the new monorail system Tokyo and Kyoto had funded. Auntie Haruka did marry Seta, though, and I'm envious: He finally got the girl he loved, and she got the man she couldn't stand to be with, and couldn't bear to be without.  
  
Kitsune will always be Kitsune. The little sneak actually forced me to fail my whole third term, because SHE wanted to have all these wonderful items SHE couldn't pay for, and somehow, I got roped into making her most of the money to pay off her credit cards. I will never understand how or why I always was the one responsible for her irrational spending habits or schemes. I hope she ropes Kentarou into doing all her dirty work, just so the pompous ass can get what he deserves.  
  
Poor Shinobu. I really wanted her attempt to get her mother and father back together again for Christmas to work, but somehow, everything seemed to go wrong, and that along with with my extra workload and with her father always pulling extra duties didn't help the situation at all. I found out that he had been pulling the extra duties to help his ex-wife get on her feet after she had lost her job, and he had been doing so through her parents as "allowances". It is a shame that the fight they had on the phone brought that out into the open, on the very night Shinobu had   
planned to get them together.  
  
Shinobu was so devastated that her parents refused to reconcile, that she turned inward. For weeks, the others attempted to bring her out of her shell, but she just kept folding herself deeper and deeper into a fantasy world of apathy and emptiness. I was working then, and it was up to Naru and Otohime to bring the cute little girl back to herself. I wish I could have been there for her, but she thought I had abandoned her, because I wasn't there for her. I still remember the words that cut through my soul: "I never want to see you again!" she had said, clutching Tama-chan close to her breast, then running from my room. I hear she is doing fine in her first year of college, and Tama is still there for her, but I just wish I could have told her then how truly sorry I was, and I also wished I could have been there for her like she had been there for me all those times I had almost given up hope.  
  
Fourth term was the worst. Otohime had gotten sick again, and she was forced to drop out of Toudai for the rest of the year, due to her health. Naru and I tended her, hoping to get her back into a healthy position to make up the classes she missed for the summer session, but she kept slipping deeper and deeper into illness, and... And...  
  
Oh, God, Why? Why did you have to take her away from me?  
  
We were supposed to be married the next summer, and we already had our home, our children and even our pets picked out! I had put a payment on her dress that same day, and I was going home when I heard the crash and saw the ambulances go by.  
  
I walked two miles out of my way to avoid the mess made by the accident, and said a prayer for the dead, and the survivors both. I never even got to say goodbye to her.  
  
I had made my way back home; all smiles, and completely clueless to the incident that had just taken Naru away from me. I walked in, took off my shoes, practically jumped into my slippers, and bounded up to her room, where I knew she would be studying.  
  
Or would have been studying, I should say.  
  
I opened the door, and the remaining residents of the Hinatasou were there. Motoko had hold of Naru's Liddo-kun, and Kitsune was a devastated mess as she barreled into me, sobbing. Auntie Haruka and Seta were there, their eyes red and puffy, and Sara seemed lost. I remember asking them what was wrong, and they wouldn't answer. Seta finally told me that Naru had been in a train accident near the shopping district not too long ago, and that her parents had been notified.  
  
I had collapsed and mourned the loss of the one thing I had ever truly wanted in my life. I didn't go to the funeral, and I couldn't bear to stay in Toudai without her, so I just left. I went to Otohime's room in the hospital and told her. She had cried, but had asked if I would be all right or not. I lied and said I would be, but when her arms circled my waist from her bed, I collapsed.  
  
Otohime was there for me, as I was there for her. I found a job in a quiet part of Tokyo, and made my way up to upper management because of my quick thinking and lucky decisions. We were able to live comfortably off what both of us made and, as time went by, the old wounds of lost love that had crippled me for so long began to heal under her gentle, caring hands.  
  
We were married two years after Naru's death. To my shame, I still dream that it was the fantasy of Naru in that dress, and not Otohime. I love Otohime with all my heart, but a piece of my soul will always be with Naru.  
  
It is now five years after Naru's death. I was on my way home from the local supermarket with the noodles Otohime loved so much. She was pregnant, and I wouldn't deny her anything she wanted. Her warm inviting smile, and that cute way she always apologized for inconveniencing me while she was in a "motherly way" as she called it, always made me willing to do anything for her.   
  
I had just crossed the street to head to the train station, when I saw a girl that looked remarkably like Naru trip on the leashed little dog owned by the gentleman next to her. Without thinking, I jumped the gate and raced over to push her out of the way of the train speeding by. I thought I had made it clear too, until my hips felt like they had been shoved in an inferno.  
  
Oddly, the sensation is gone now. All I feel is numbness throughout my body. I can see the paramedics strap the oxygen mask to my face, and I can see a crowd gathering where I had jumped from to save the girl that so looked like my Naru.  
  
I turn my head slightly, and I can see her there, sobbing. I close my eyes a moment, and open them, and I can see her coming over to me; her face as serene and as lovely as Naru's.  
  
"Keitarou, come to me," The girl said. I get up, and reach out for her outstretched hand. She has a ring like the engagement ring I had given to Naru. I look closer, not believing my eyes. I can't feel or see the rims of my glasses touching the bridge of my nose, and yet, her face is crystal clear.  
  
Had Naru come back to me? Or was this just a delusion brought on by the painkillers?  
  
"Keitarou, my love. Come with me." She sang into my ear with a voice as soft as silk. I hesitated, and saw, out of the corner of my eye, the paramedics scurrying around me. It was odd; I still couldn't feel anything that they were doing to me.  
  
"Don't look back, my love," she said. I could feel the warmth of her as I held her close. I closed my eyes for a moment, and made up my mind.  
  
With a final prayer for Otohime not to forget us, I held on tightly to my Naru, never bothering to look back.  
  



End file.
